ASYLUM seekers seeking permission to stay in Britain are being offered free swimming pool or gym sessions while they wait, it emerged yesterday.

More than 250 people from other countries have so far made use of a special card that gets them into council leisure facilities that residents – and even pensioners – have to pay to use.

Britons wanting to join the scheme – operating in Newcastle – can expect to pay up to £180 a year for the city council’s Leisure Plus card.

But 256 of the city’s 480 asylum seekers have taken up the offer of a free card, at a cost to council taxpayers of £7,000.

Bureaucrats regard the scheme as so successful it may be copied by other local authorities around the country.

Your Homes Newcastle, responsible for housing the applicants, says the scheme prevents users from feeling isolated in a strange country, and encourages them to become part of the community in which they are living.

But TaxPayers’ Alliance spokeswoman Emma Boon said: “Offering one group of people a particular service for free, whilst others, including pensioners, are paying is likely to create divisions in the local community.”

Applicants must be able to prove their asylum seeker status to qualify for the card, which is valid for six months and includes free use of Newcastle’s state-of-the-art Centre for Sport complex.